This invention relates to caliper type brakes or clutches and particularly to caliper type brakes having rotors for engagement by brake shoes on opposite sides of the rotors. In caliper brakes used heretofore, the rotors have been cut out of plate steel and the contact of the brake shoes with the discs has generated undesirable noise. The manufacture of these discs has also been costly because it has been impossible to cut the round discs out of plate steel without generating substantial scrap.
Friction discs of carbon for aircraft disc type brakes have been made by winding layers of chopped fibers and resin in helical configurations and then sintering the material into a unitary structure. Also helically wound layers of fibrous base material and asbestos web material have been proposed as clutch facings. In none of these friction members have provisions been made for controlling noise. These friction members made by helical winding of material other than metal have not been proposed for caliper brakes but only for purposes where the frictional engagement is in a continuous 360-degree area around the discs. In caliper brakes, the rotor is mounted for rotation with a wheel and is engaged by friction linings at circumferentially spaced-apart positions with the noise being generated at the localized area where each of the linings engages the disc surface.